Thoughts on books, reading and publishing from the staff and friends of the Tattered Cover Book Store.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

The Vatican, Warts And All

“One reason I wrote this book is that
journalists tend to focus exclusively on the Vatican’s power and its
institutional impact. I wanted to chronicle the human side of the
Vatican -- warts and all -- that makes it such a fascinating place.”

- John Thavis, Author

The Vatican is typically viewed as a monolithic power structure
that pursues a global agenda with a unified sense of mission. John
Thavis, who covered the Vatican beat for 30 years, knows that the
reality is far different. It’s a place where Curia cardinals fight
private wars, where leaks are common, where sex scandals simmer and
where, increasingly, popes are embarrassed by their own missteps and the
incompetence of their top aides.

The Vatican Diaries pulls back the curtain on this surreal
world. In ten chapters, it takes readers behind the scenes to meet the
people who make things happen or screw things up. On several notorious
issues -- a religious order headed by a pedophile priest, a papal butler
who smuggles documents to a reporter, the pope’s rehabilitation of a
Holocaust-denying bishop -- the book answers the question: “What were
they thinking?”

The book’s cast of characters includes little-known figures who are
part of the daily Vatican drama: an archeologist battling a cardinal’s
parking lot, a Vatican spokesman waging an uphill battle for
transparency, a papal preacher whose gaffes upstage the pope, a Jesuit
who pulls every string to make Pius XII a saint. A final chapter, “The
Real Benedict,” describes journalists’ frustrating and failed attempts
to pin a persona on the enigmatic German pope.

This mosaic of true stories brings the Vatican to life. What emerges
is a portrait of an institution brought repeatedly to the brink of
crisis as it struggles to come to terms with the modern world.